January 2, 2021
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, God and All! All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God (Psalm 98:3).
By The Numbers:
Day 2 of the year means there are 364 days remaining in the year and 357 until Christmas. Odd, some folks have decided to decorate early!
Day of the current Christmas season being observed: 9
Number of total days in the current Christmas season: 17
Days ‘til the next potential dramatic chapter in The Tale of the Lame-Duck POTUS: 4
Days ‘til Inauguration Day: 18
Start Your Day With A Song:
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen/We Three Kings as performed by Barenaked Ladies & Sarah McLachlan (2008)
Saint Basil the Great, Pray For Us!
Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great (c. 330 – January 1 or 2, 379), was the bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed the heresies of the early Christian church, fighting against both Arianism and the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea. His ability to balance his theological convictions with his political connections made Basil a powerful advocate for the Nicene position.
In addition to his work as a theologian, Basil was known for his care of the poor and underprivileged. Basil established guidelines for monastic life which focus on community life, liturgical prayer, and manual labor. Together with Pachomius, he is remembered as a father of communal monasticism in Eastern Christianity. He is considered a saint by the traditions of both Eastern and Western Christianity.
Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa are collectively referred to as the Cappadocian Fathers. The Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches have given him, together with Gregory of Nazianzus and John Chrysostom, the title of Great Hierarch. He is recognized as a Doctor of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church. He is sometimes referred to by the epithet "revealer of heavenly mysteries". (Source: Wikipedia)
Looking at 2020 with 20/20 (the Message):
Happy New Year!
Should it be so? I mean, don’t we start this year at the point we were standing a couple of days ago? Is there something truly exciting about flipping a page in the calendar, or changing the date to “2021”? Was there a feeling of great joy seeing the year welcomed with the crystal balloon dropped in New York’s Times Square - and the streets empty? We still have in our day no prince, prophet or leader (see Daniel 3:38 ff); or if we have, we aren’t listening to them.
We only move forward by moving, forward. Our situation generally does not improve unless we acknowledge the grace of God and the ability to live in the manner He calls us to live.
In my archive five years ago I shared the following Guest Message. It seems even more appropriate now.
[We've reached the end of another year;] a year that has been filled with deprivation. God filled the year with suffering, renunciation, sadness of every kind; and spiritually, with dryness, with the destitution of the manger, without the loving joys that make the divine dawning in us so radiant. But God taught me a stronger, deeper love, stripped of conscious happiness, and I offer the year that is over and the one [just begun] with a grateful heart. I accept in advance all that God wants of me, or through me, or for me; joy or sorrow, health or illness, poverty or riches, and life or death, according to what will be for the greatest good of others...
It is a source of pain and difficult sacrifice to have to divide one's life so much and always to give each one less than he or she expects. This sometimes leads others to feel not enough is being done for them, and they perhaps experience some sadness or regret, which becomes painful to [the one] who is the involuntary cause of it. And then one's self-love dislikes the loss of esteem and appreciation as well as the feeling of being not up to the task. That perhaps is the hidden fruit of this trial: a little useful humiliation, less dangerous than empathy and admiration, interior pain that does not elicit any praise. To fulfill my obligations generously; to give each one my energy, time, affection, a warm and hospitable welcome, even at the price of sacrifice...To offer God my incapacity, and joyfully to endure being misunderstood a little, or rather, to endure being truly misunderstood with my weakness, my laziness, my many imperfections. Without this drop of bitterness, the tenderness of this affection surrounding me might make me slide into laziness and complacency.
My God, I accept my dissipated life, so often not what I want - this sometimes fatiguing mixture of activities, tedious acquaintances [or the lack of either or both], and cares. Help me to fulfill all the obligations of life and yet preserve my spiritual life. Let the warmth of my hospitality, the serenity of my bearing, the friendliness of my words always hide from everyone any physical suffering and my spiritual efforts and sacrifices. Teach me to be all things to all people, to be more strict with myself.
--Elisabeth Leseur (d.1914)
(Elisabeth was a French married laywoman whose cause for canonization as a saint of the Catholic Church is underway. I found much of what she wrote here over a century ago quite relevant to my present life. Her writing was included in the December 2015 issue of Magnificat. As we dutifully and ceremonially turn to a new calendar, may we pray that we may take prayerful discernment and action to move a little closer to be all God wants of us; as disciples, parents, citizens; to maintain a high moral standard and try, beyond nearly impossible odds, to be all things to all people.)
The Memorable(!?!?) Moments of 2020:
January 1 – The Australian bushfires of 2019, or "Black Summer", that have killed as many as 500 million animals so far continues into the new year as the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) are deployed to New South Wales to assist mass evacuation efforts.
January 3 – 2019–20 Persian Gulf crisis: A U.S. drone strike at Baghdad International Airport kills Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and Iraqi paramilitary leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.
January 16 – The impeachment trial of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, begins in the U.S. Senate.
January 30 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization (WHO) declares the outbreak of the disease as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, the sixth time that this measure has been invoked since 2009.
February 5 - The President of the United States, Donald Trump, is acquitted by the Senate on both Article I (48 yea 52 nay) and Article II (47 yea 53 nay) of Impeachment.
February 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization (WHO) names the disease COVID-19.
February 27 – 2020 stock market crash: The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunges by 1,190.95 points, or 4.4%, to close at 25,766.64, its largest one-day point decline at the time. This follows several days of large falls, marking the worst week for the index since 2008, triggered by fears of the spreading COVID-19.
March 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: Italy places 16 million people in quarantine, more than a quarter of its population, in a bid to stop the spread of COVID-19. A day later, the quarantine is expanded to cover the entire country.
March 9 – International share prices fall sharply in response to a Russo-Saudi oil price war and the impact of COVID-19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plunges more than 2,000 points, the largest fall in its history up to that point. Oil prices also plunge by as much as 30% in early trading, the biggest fall since 1991.
March 11 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.
March 12 – Global stock markets crash due to continued concerns over COVID-19 and the U.S. travel ban on the Schengen Area. The DJIA goes into free fall, closing at over −2,300 points, the worst losses for the index since 1987.
March 13 – COVID-19 pandemic: The government of Nepal announces that Mount Everest will be closed to climbers and the public for the rest of the season due to concerns from the COVID-19 pandemic in Asia.
March 16 – The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 2,997.10, the single largest point drop in history and the second-largest percentage drop ever at 12.93%, an even greater crash than Black Monday (1929). This follows the U.S. Federal Reserve announcing that it will cut its target interest rate to 0–0.25%.
March 24 - India goes into lockdown to contain COVID-19. The total number of people in the world facing some form of pandemic-related movement restriction now exceeds 2.6 billion, a third of the global population.
March 24 - The International Olympic Committee and Japan suspend the 2020 Summer Olympics until 2021. On March 30, the Summer Olympics are rescheduled from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
March 26 - Global COVID-19 cases reach 500,000, with nearly 23,000 deaths confirmed. The US surpasses China and Italy in total number of known COVID-19 cases, with at least 81,321 cases and more than 1,000 deaths.
March 30 – 2020 Russia–Saudi Arabia oil price war: The price of Brent Crude falls 9% to $23 per barrel, the lowest level since November 2002.
April 2 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 1 million worldwide.
April 5 - YouTube says it will remove videos promoting a conspiracy theory linking 5G to COVID-19, while "borderline content" will be removed from search results. The decision comes after four more mobile phone masts are set on fire, and broadband engineers have received threats, in several UK cities.
April 10 - The death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 100,000 globally, a ten-fold increase from March 20.
April 12 - Pope Francis livestreams the Urbi et Orbi blessing for Easter; it is the second blessing in a month, with the first taking place on March 27 during a special prayer service for the end of the pandemic.
April 14 - U.S. president Donald Trump announces that the U.S. will suspend funding towards the World Health Organization (WHO) pending an investigation of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and its relationship with China.
April 15 - The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 2 million worldwide.
April 20 - Oil prices reach a record low, with West Texas Intermediate falling into negative values.
April 23 - Facebook removes "pseudoscience" and "conspiracy theory" as options for targeted ads as criticism mounts against social media for its role in spreading misinformation about COVID-19.
April 27 - COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases passes 3 million worldwide, while the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. passes 1 million.
May 1 – COVID-19 pandemic: The total number of recovered COVID-19 patients reaches 1 million worldwide, according to data from The Johns Hopkins University.
May 6 - New evidence indicates that an Algerian-born French fishmonger, who had not traveled to China and did not have contact with any Chinese nationals, was treated for pneumonia from an unknown source on December 27, 2019, now identified as COVID-19.
May 21 - The U.S. announces it will withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty within six months, alleging continuous violations by Russia.
May 21 - COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 5 million worldwide, with 106,000 new cases recorded over the past 24 hours, the highest single-day figure so far.
May 26 - Protests caused by the killing of George Floyd break out across hundreds of cities in the U.S.[143] and around the world. These are followed by further protests and rallies on June 6 against racism and police brutality around the world.
May 27 - COVID-19 pandemic: The U.S. death toll passes 100,000 – more Americans than were killed in the Vietnam War and Korean War combined, and approaching that of the First World War, where 116,000 Americans died in combat. The total number of cases continues to rise, although the rate is slowing.
May 31 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 6 million worldwide.
June 2 – A US$5 billion class action lawsuit is filed against Alphabet Inc. and Google, alleging the company violates users' right to privacy by tracking them in Chrome's incognito mode.
June 7 – COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 400,000.
June 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 7 million worldwide.
June 9 – COVID-19 pandemic: A Harvard University study suggests that COVID-19 may have been spreading in China as early as August 2019, based on hospital car park usage and web search trends.
June 28 - The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 10 million worldwide, while the global death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 500,000. The U.S. continues to report the highest number of any country as it reaches 2.5 million, a quarter of all cases globally.
July 18 – COVID-19 pandemic: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 600,000.
July 22 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 15 million worldwide.
August 10 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 20 million worldwide.
August 22 – COVID-19 pandemic: The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds 800,000.
August 26 – Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos becomes the first person in history to have a net worth exceeding US$200 billion, according to Forbes.
August 27 – Hurricane Laura makes landfall in Lake Charles, Louisiana with winds of 150 mph, making it the strongest hurricane to ever strike the state in terms of wind speed, tied with the 1856 Last Island Hurricane.
August 28 – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Japan, announces his resignation from office, citing ill health.
August 30 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 25 million worldwide. India continues to record the highest daily increase of cases.
September 4 - Pope Benedict XVI becomes the longest-lived pope at 93 years, four months, and 16 days, surpassing Pope Leo XIII, who died in 1903.
September 17 - The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 30 million worldwide.
September 29 - The worldwide death toll from COVID-19 exceeds one million.
October 19 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 40 million worldwide.
November 3 – November 7 - 2020 United States presidential election: Joe Biden is elected as the 46th President of the United States, after remaining vote counts (November 7) come in from key states delayed by an influx of mail-in ballots caused by the pandemic, defeating the incumbent President Donald Trump.
November 4 – The United States formally exits the Paris Agreement on climate change.
November 8 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 50 million worldwide.
November 22 – The United States withdraws from the Treaty on Open Skies.
December 4 - The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 65 million worldwide, with the global death toll exceeding 1.5 million. Figures reflect that, in the last week, over 10,000 people worldwide have died on average every day, with one death every nine seconds. According to the World Health Organization, COVID-19 had caused more deaths in 2020 than tuberculosis in 2019, as well as four times the number of deaths than malaria.
December 15 – The International Criminal Court accuses the Philippines of crimes against humanity in its war on drugs.
December 16 – The United States formally designates Switzerland and Vietnam as being currency manipulators.
December 21 - A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn (aka the “Christmas Star”) occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.
December 27 – COVID-19 pandemic: The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 passes 80 million worldwide.
Happy Birthday!!!
1873 – Thérèse of Lisieux, French nun and saint (d. 1897)
1940 – Jim Bakker, American televangelist
1942 – Dennis Hastert, American educator and politician, 59th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
1947 – Jack Hanna, American zoologist and author
We Remember:
1904 – James Longstreet, American general and diplomat (b. 1821)
1974 – Tex Ritter, American actor (b. 1905)
1990 – Alan Hale Jr., American film and television actor (b. 1921)
2019 – Daryl Dragon, American musician (b. 1942)
2019 – Bob Einstein, American actor and comedian (b. 1942)
2019 – Gene Okerlund, American wrestling announcer (b. 1942)
Parting Words:
May the Lord bless you, and hold you and yours in the palm of His hand! May His face shine upon you and be gracious unto you! May He show His countenance upon you and grant you peace in this new year…and always!
Until we meet again, God is with us - may God have mercy on us and bless us all…
+the Phoenix
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